Show BUILDING ROADS IN FRANCE nil thoroughfares maintained entirely by government are con strutted ted 42 feet feel wine france admittedly has tl if P best roads system so far doused and its nit notional ional roads constitute about Gs gl r arr c r cent of tile the 65 miles in the ft hole bola country the nationiel nati onil roads maintained en b tho the eo eminent are con 12 42 feet wide bAt between mecia ditches and lead from rom the capital to the prin linn cipal cities ports and commercio com merci il centers ind and bc between ten tile the principal cities with the departmental or state roads and commercial loads leads of differ ent cl classes ases the national government has nothing to do except to deter mine their eidth chich is fixed by general lams according to their clest fi ici cation tion the united stites states has to ind and a half times the population of francil and about si six times the road collage lo io balance this difference a series of national roads which connect our capitals and principal C cities would dul amount to about 2 si per cpr cent of the 2 ar 0 miles of roads in this country as compared mith the gia ga per cent in france bring ing the mileage of national roads per person in the united states about the same a 11 ie a as 8 in france IN ith our enormous resources au aalt alt ing development b the extension of our road systems there seems no rea son uh we ne should not proceed ich with the work mork of building national roads writes lewis 11 lipare in III the illinois farmer national roads building did not ruin france it made france great the idea of building up a machine out of 0 a road cons construction truc tion bureau does not deserve deseri e considers con sidera tion in all of the important govern mental work mork being carried on it seems the policy ot of all parties to see that it Is conducted economically econom icely and whatever pirt part chances to bo be in power A fair instance of 0 that is tho the valuation tion ot of the railroads ol of the tha country countr which is just about to begin in which civil service serice examinations will soon boon be held tor for the selection of 0 several thousand civil and mechanical engineers M bornand gordas bordas a leiding leading french engineer writing lor for the third international road congress now in session in III london says the national roads which connect the capital to the frontiers and to the large towns tons or else form a connecting link be ameen the moro more densely populated centers are of the greatest interest to the countr as a whole not only from rom an economic point ot of view but also from a strategic one as assuring co communications between points at long distances apart it Is therefore essential that their general trend gen eral plan and width should hould be ba settled unfettered bi local influences this Is the idea that the A A k national good roads board have beia been and are endeavoring to impress upon the lawmakers lam makers of 0 this country it bems as though plaris plans which have been so 0 eminently successful in other countries ind and product productive he of such ex celent results are worth of a trial here |